Welcome at the GRK1957 "Adipocyte-Brain Crosstalk"

Our DFG funded Graduiertenkolleg 1957 offers focused research projects and a structured training programme. In an interdisciplinary research approach we address the effects of hormones derived from adipose tissue (adipokines) on CNS function and, in turn, the control of adipose tissue and body weight by the brain.

Adipokine research

Adipocytes secrete bioactive factors that act in an autocrine, paracrine, or endocrine manner similar to the cytokine peptides of the immune system, thus termed adipokines. Since the discovery of the first adipokine, leptin, a growing number of such fat cell-derived peptide hormones has been described including adiponectin, nesfatin-1, or visfatin; but also inflammatory cytokines and steroid hormones. At the Lübeck campus a unique and historically grown focus on adipokine research exists with a strong integration of basic and clinical research.

Central adipokine effects

Adipokines signal the adipose state to appetite-regulating centres of the brain. In the hypothalamus, leptin inhibits appetite-promoting neurons in the arcuate nucleus and promotes energy expenditure via stimulation of sympathetic nerve activity to adipose tissues. Such feedback mechanisms also exist for other adipokines. The complex autoregulatory feedback system between central and adipose tissues is essentially involved in adjusting setpoints of energy homeostasis.This adipocyte-brain crosstalk (ABC) lies at the heart of our DFG research training group GRK 1957.

Project Evaluation at ABC Winter Retreat 2019

Doctoral researchers and supervisors of the GRK1957 met at the ABC Winter Retreat from February 7 to February 8, 2019 on the Lübeck campus.

Each doctoral researcher made a progress report to the ABC members and received comments and advice from the peers as well as the supervisors. The retreat served as a tool as self-evaluation of the ongoing projects, but also an incubator for inter-project collaboration. The results from the intensive discussion was not only helpful to the future work of doctoral researchers, but also beneficial to the supervisors in new research initiatives.

In the evening social program, the ABC members formed various teams for the fun of bowling.